Week 5: Product punch-ups

Roger pays extra for a keyboard
 without writing on it! For fun! Seriously!

"Consolidation?". That was the answer Roger gave me when I asked him what we'd done this week.  If I was feeling corporate, I'd probably settle with that; always good to consolidate. It's the grown-up equivalent of tidying your folders at university. Feels like working but without actually err… working.

No, week five hasn't been consolidation. It has been a series of conversations, trying to understand something. Problem was, we didn't quite know what we were trying to understand.  Until yesterday.

ClearSavvy.com has been two distinct movements; one of software development, and one of sales and marketing.  These two movements bounce into each other every now and again and it feels a bit strange, but then life carries on. Think "movie where a guy and a girl meet, feel weird, not sure why, turns out they're brother and sister but didn't know it".

This week, we've bumped these two movements several times, and finally we get it.  We've realised we can't just develop the most successful software in a logical order because it won't capture the imagination of our early adopters. They won't need maximised results as much as they need a demonstration of the breadth of possibilities.  Equally, we realise we can't treat sales and marketing like a private conversation with Mike and our prospects.  To make development decisions we need to be right in it. Involved in all the sales and marketing thinking so we can change and adapt what we're making.

In short, week 5 has been about how everything we're doing is tightly interconnected. We've still got an idea for a great product that our prospects will love. Only now, we know we can deliver it in the order that will excite them and we understand the decisions we're going to be faced with along the way.

Excitement levels: I get it, you get it, we get it!